Nicky Catsburg wins final race in Slovakia

Nicky Catsburg secured victory in the final World Touring Car Cup race of the weekend in Slovakia as the fight for the championship lead closed up once again.

With both Nestor Girolami and Attila Tassi missing the race following incidents in Race 2, the cars lined up for the start with Berthon on pole in his Audi as the Comtoyou team looked to complete a clean sweep of the three races.

When the lights went out, it was Norbert Michelisz who made the best start to lead into turn one from Nicky Catsburg but he then got a touch from a fast-starting Jean Karl-Vernay at turn two which unsettled the Hyundai and dropped him down to 14th spot – leaving Catsburg out front.

Gabriele Tarquini by this point was already out of the action, tipped into a spin at turn one that saw him end up in the barriers.

Catsburg led the field through the opening lap ahead of Vernay and Berthon, with Gilles Magnus enjoying a strong opening lap to move up to fourth from Esteban Guerrieri and Santiago Urrutia. Mikel Azcona had also enjoyed a fine opening lap to move up into the top eight in his Cupra, and then cleared the Lynk & Co of Yvan Muller on lap two to move into seventh.

The Spaniard, who had started down in 17th, was the man to watch in the early stages as he then set about trying to find a way ahead of Urrutia into sixth and he managed to make a move stick into turn one at the start of the fourth lap. Just behind, Tom Coronel – who started the race second in the standings – pulled a similar move on Yvan Muller to take eighth spot in the second of the Comtoyou Audis.

Azcona’s stunning charge forwards continued as he slid ahead of Guerrieri into fifth place and then set about chasing down a four second gap to Magnus ahead.

Further back down the order, Yann Erhlacher was being forced to defend hard to try and hold on to eleventh spot, with huge pressure from behind from Aurelien Comte in the Vukovic Renault and Petr Fulin’s Cupra.

When Luca Engster in tenth managed to get ahead of Muller, the Frenchman immediately allowed Ehrlacher to follow him through and was then given the role of keeping Comte at bay in an attempt to relieve the pressure on the points leader. Comte tagged the rear of Muller in a move that cost him time, allowing a recovering Michelisz to get ahead after he had sneaked ahead of Fulin.

Out front as the race passed the half way stage, Catsburg was holding a slender lead over Vernay and Berthon, with the main action continuing to be found in the lower reaches of the top ten.

Coronel stole seventh from Urrutia at the start of lap seven whilst Ehrlacher was able to break away from the squabbles behind thanks to Muller’s help before his uncle lost a spot to Michelisz.

Heading into the final two laps, the top four places remained the same as they had since the end of the opening lap with Azcona giving chase and Coronel trying to find a way ahead of Guerrieri – a move the Dutchman made stick going into turn one on the penultimate lap to take sixth.

Points leader Ehrlacher was also back under pressure, this time from defending champion Michelisz in the battle for tenth as the pair ran nose-to-tail. The defence would last until the start of the final lap, with Michelisz able to make a move stick into turn one to take the position away from the Frenchman.

At the front, Catsburg duly wrapped up a first win in WTCR for Team Engstler as he took the flag ahead of Vernay and Berthon, with Magnus glad to see the flag in fourth with Azcona having closed to within a second by the finish.

Sixth for Coronel allowed him to close to within 20 points of the championship lead, with Guerrieri, Urrutia, Engstler and Michelisz then rounding out the top ten ahead of Ehrlacher.

Comte managed to battle ahead of Muller for twelfth on the final lap or the race, with Fulin and Thed Bjork completing the top 15 places.

The next WTCR race takes place at the Hungaroring next weekend.